Blockchain News 28 January 2018

Tether confirms its relationship with auditor has ended

Tether, the issuer of the dollar-pegged cryptocurrency USDT, said its relationship with audit firm Friedman LLP has ended.

Friedman had been working on an audit of Tether, which has close ties to the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. Vocal critics of the two companies have claimed that Tether has been printing tokens out of thin air to drive up the price of bitcoin on the exchange.

The spokesperson’s emailed statement statement reads: “We confirm that the relationship with Friedman is dissolved… there is no precedent set to guide the process nor any benchmark against which to measure its success.”

The Bitcoin vending machine marks the first of its kind in Thailand’s second largest city, which has just over 1 million people in the province, aka “metro” Chiang Mai.

The machine has a touch screen and operates by scanning a QR code (presumably by smart phone) for the receiving Bitcoin wallet address the Bitcoin is sent to. There is also a finger print scanner on the machine.

It is located in the upscale and popular “Nimman” area of Chiang Mai. The cafe is called Cube 7 and is a large cafe with indoor and outdoor seating, as well as a meeting room. The owner said they are planning on accepting Bitcoin for food and drink in the near future, which would make them join the 5 other businesses in the city accepting Bitcoin according to coinmap.org

Hacked Tokyo cryptocurrency exchange to repay owners $425M

Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc said on Sunday it would return about 46.3 billion yen ($425 million) it lost to hackers two days ago in one of the biggest-ever thefts of digital money.

Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) sent a notice to the country’s roughly 30 firms that operate virtual currency exchanges to warn of further possible cyber-attacks, urging them to step up security.